Our Favorite Action Scenes: 'District B13'

It doesn't take a film guru to realize how essential music is to an action scene. Next to the editor (and those who actually composed / accomplished the stunts), the man behind the music is the guy who directs the action. Few films in recent memory have summarized this theory as well as the opening chase scene in Pierre Morel's District B13, which introduces the film with a lot of energy, flash, creativity, and style. The frantic musical beats are the spine of the entire sequence, and they accompany the staggeringly agile David Belle as he leaps off balconies, slides down ropes, bolts across rooftops, and beats up some villains through sheer force of evasiveness.

Like most movie geeks, this was my first real taste of movie-style parkour and, like Michael Scott, I've been a big fan ever since. There are several other action scenes worth savoring in District B13 (as well as in its sequel, District B13: Ultimatum), but the following sequence is the one I come back to, time and again, when I need a little jolt of highly amusing cinematic mayhem.

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